CHESHIRE, Mass. — With the help of a reimbursement from Berkshire Health Group, the Adams-Cheshire Regional School District returned the retiree health insurance split to 75/25.
The School Committee voted last Monday to continue providing 75 percent of the premiums for non-Medex users after receiving nearly $200,000 in Berkshire Health Group Retiree Drug Subsidy Funds. The split for Medex users will go back to 67/33.
Last month, the committee voted to change the retiree health insurance split to 60/40 for non-Medex users and 51/49 for Medex users, by fiscal 2021, to be more in line with active employees.
"The committee then heard from retirees who attended the meeting and decided to phase in the Medex splits over the next three years starting with a 67/33 split in FY19," Superintendent Robert Putnam said. "They did not change the PPO and POS splits."
The switch had an immediate impact on the proposed $19,557,372 the fiscal 2019 budget that with the new split would increase by 1.46 percent. Without the change in the health insurance split, Business Manager Erika Snyder said the budget would see an increase of 2.46 percent. However, the district was able to use funds from excess and deficiency to offset the increase.
Snyder said the district was able to make last-minute budget adjustments through the reimbursement program. This is a program offered by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to reimburse health plan sponsors for a portion of their eligible expenses for retiree prescription drug benefits.
Snyder said Berkshire Health Group received a series of these reimbursements over the years that created a pool of money used to maintain rates. Because Berkshire Health Group funds are currently strong, and its board voted in February to disburse these reimbursements gathered from fiscal years 2006, 2008 and 2009 to Berkshire Health group members.
Out of the $1.8 million being dispersed, Adams-Cheshire will receive $200,000.
Snyder said this pool of money was not entirely siphoned off to offset unchanged splits and that the School committee voted to add $65,000 to E & D in order to keep the town of Cheshire's assessment under a 3 percent increase.
"We are headed into the second year of a healthy fund balance and the School Committee felt it was appropriate to take this opportunity to give some relief to the towns," she said.
A portion of the town assessments are calculated by the state and out of the district’s control, however, the district can adjust the over minimum assessments.
She added the funds will also be used to extend Project Lead The Way programming to Grades 6 and 9.
"This is a source of income that will not be available in coming years and must be used to support only those items that wouldn’t require a year after year commitment of funds," she said.
"These funds will be used to offset the changes in retiree insurance as well as fund the startup costs and implementation of PLTW for Grades 6 and 9."
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A Rare Bird: Koperniak Stands Out in Triple-A
By Frank MurtaughThe Memphis (Tenn.) Flyer
With Major League Baseball’s September roster expansion just around the corner, Berkshire County baseball fans will be watching to see whether 2016 Hoosac Valley High School graduate Matt Koperniak gets the call from the St. Louis Cardinals. Heading into Tuesday night’s action, Koperniak had 125 hits this summer for the Cards’ Triple A affiliate, the Memphis (Tenn.) Redbirds. He is hitting .309 this season with 17 home runs. In his minor league career, he has a .297 batting average with 56 homers after being signed as a free agent by St. Louis out of Trinity College in 2020. This week, sportswriter Frank Murtaugh of the Memphis Flyer profiled Koperniak for that publication. Murtaugh’s story appears here with the Flyer’s permission.
MEMPHIS, Tenn. -- I’ve interviewed professional baseball players for more than two decades. There are talented players who, honestly, aren’t that interesting away from the diamond. They’re good ballplayers, and baseball is what they know. There are also very interesting baseball players who aren’t all that talented. Now and then, though, you find yourself in the home team’s dugout at AutoZone Park with a very good baseball player who has a very interesting story to share. Like the Memphis Redbirds’ top hitter this season, outfielder Matt Koperniak.
That story? It began on Feb. 8, 1998, when Koperniak was born in London. (Koperniak played for Great Britain in the 2023 World Baseball Classic.) “My dad was in the military,” explains Koperniak. “He was in Italy for a bit, then England. But I have no memories of that time.” Matt and his family moved back to the States — to Adams, Mass. — before his third birthday.
Koperniak played collegiately at Division III Trinity College in Connecticut, part of the New England Small College Athletic Conference. He hit .394 as a junior in 2019, but beating up on the likes of Tufts and Wesleyan doesn’t typically catch the eye of major-league scouts. When the coronavirus pandemic wiped out his senior season, Koperniak received an extra year of eligibility but, having graduated with a degree in biology, he chose to sign as a free agent with the St. Louis Cardinals.
“I’ve always loved baseball,” says Koperniak, “and it’s helped me get places, including a good school. My advisor — agent now — was able to get me into pro ball, so here we are.” He played in a few showcases as well as for the North Adams SteepleCats in the New England Collegiate Baseball League, enough to convince a Cardinal scout he was worth that free agent offer.
The Redbirds hosted Memphis Red Sox Night on Aug. 10, the home team taking the field in commemorative uniforms honoring the Bluff City’s Negro Leagues team of the 1930s and ’40s. Luken Baker (the franchise’s all-time home run leader) and Jordan Walker (the team’s top-ranked prospect) each slammed home runs in a Memphis win over Gwinnett, but by the final out it had become Matt Koperniak Night at AutoZone Park. He drilled a home run, a triple, and a single, falling merely a double shy of hitting for the cycle. It was perfectly Koperniak: Outstanding baseball blended into others’ eye-catching heroics.
“It’s trying to do the little things right,” he emphasizes, “and being a competitor. The Cardinals do a great job of getting us to play well-rounded baseball. Everybody has the same mindset: How can I help win the next game? You gotta stay in attack mode to be productive.”
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